The contract is to provide cloud-based SAP business software, the system which BAT uses on a global basis to support its large portfolio of products which includes the likes of Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Rothmans.
BAT is the second largest tobacco company by market share, and has operations in over 180 countries across the world. BAT uses SAP across its global markets, and the plan is for a consolidation effort to mean that a single instance of SAP will operate across 65 markets come the year 2016.
T-Systems will move the business software into the cloud over a period of two years, with ten current BAT international data centres ultimately being merged into three global data centres (based in South America, Asia and Europe).
Phil Colman, CIO at BAT, commented: “Our IT strategy focuses on a single portfolio of connected applications running on standardised technology to drive competitive advantage across the business. The T-Systems deal will help us to deliver that strategy.”
T-Systems was founded back in the year 2001, and has its headquarters in Frankfurt. The firm employs close to 50,000 staff in over 20 countries worldwide.